If you are reading this, you must have braved through numerous sleepless nights and is on the verge of giving up on this crazy routine. We have all been there, haven’t we? But mommies, our perseverance will pay off! Innocent smiles; their first “mama” and knowing that they are gaining weight and growing well with YOUR liquid-gold - it’s damn worth it!
1. Sleep when your Child is sleeping
I’ve heard this umpteen times and I will gladly say: it’s true! Put down everything and grab some sleep whenever your Child is sleeping. Instead of browsing leisurely, you should choose sleep over chilling. It’s great to indulge in some “me” time, but I keep it short. By short, I really mean giving myself a 10 - 15 minutes breather, browsing to my heart’s content and putting everything aside for sleep. I know it hurts to be waking up on a 2 hourly-routine for feeding, burping and changing of diapers, but once you get through to the time when your LO just wakes up for 1 single night feed or simply sleep-through-the-night, your efforts would have paid off!
On another note, it wouldn’t take long for your LO to sleep-through-the-night if you practise sleep training early!
2. Eat and drink enough to fuel up
Don’t be worried about the extra weight if you are breastfeeding! Please eat and drink up adequately to give yourself sufficient energy to fuel through the 2-hourly routine and produce enough breast milk for your Little One! Do you know when you are breastfeeding, you are also losing calories. If you don’t eat and drink up well, you will probably end up with a low supply. More importantly, you will find yourself restless and sluggish in the day. If you are a working mom, this may not be ideal for you.
3. Invest in hands-free pumps for time when you are not doing direct latching / exclusively pumping
Oh yes! Hands-free pumps are really the way to go if you wanna save your nights. You can even close your eyes and grab a really short nap while pumping. Or rather, you can also take the time to indulge in some “me” time. However, choose a hands-free pump that provides good suction that can give you a good yield other than its portability and lightweight features. There are plenty in the market right now, for e.g. Spectra, Freemies, Imani i2, Be-Free, Supermama and many other similar-style pump. Take your time to find the right fit and right one that can fit your needs because I strongly believe every mother has their own preference. It doesn’t mean when the Freemies worked for someone, it will work for you too. Take some time to read up and do your research before committing to the pump that will stay with you for as long as you breastfeed.
However, if you are doing direct-latching, there are a couple of positions suitable for mommies to feed their LO while sleeping. Give it a try so you can actually rest in more.
4. Get a bottle warmer and place it right at your bedside
BOTTLE WARMERS are life savers!
Please invest in one and place them by your bedside. Imagine having to use hot water and wait for your breast milk to heat up, without knowing what temperature or how long it’s gonna take. I ended up waiting and falling asleep most of the time. After having a bottle warmer, it has cut down the waiting time by half and knowing what to expect, I managed my time better. I make an effort to wake up just a tad earlier than my LO’s expected feeding time and heat the milk in advance first. In that way, I have a warmed-up bottle by my side before my LO starts to fuss - truly saves my night! Anyway, there are plenty in the market which I shall not name a specific. But the standard electric ones are really sufficient. Simply plug in, turn the knob and you are good to go!
5. Take short naps in the day
If you can afford to take naps in the day (applicable to stay-home mothers / mothers working-from-home), please do! Even if it’s just a 10 minutes nap, you’ll wake up even more refreshed for your errands and responsibilities in the day. Taking care of an infant is crazy enough through the day and the night (when you’ve got no help at all) , imagine surviving on a few hour’s sleep at night only and waking on a 2-hourly routine, it sounds totally insane.
Close your eyes and rest in for just a while / whenever you can. Trust me, a well rested mother can press on longer and reap your rewards earlier!
I hope the above 5 Tricks work for you just like it did for me. If you have any tricks to share with us, feel free to comment and share! Just like a community, we help one another so we can survive this steep learning curve called “Motherhood”.
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